Rocking at Experiments.

Readers. There has been something heavy weighing on my mind. It is time for me to unload upon you all.

Are you sitting?

I have no idea what I'm doing when I spin.

I mean to be fair, I've only been using my wheel for 3 months and have minimal drop spindle experience; but sometimes I feel like only experts can blog about things. I know I should just acknowledge that this is the internet and writing something automatically makes you an expert (did I mention I'm a tad sarcastic). Alas, that is not me.

I'm on the edge of two blog posts right now. Here is the first where I can tell you that I may not know what the hell I'm doing, but sometimes that works! Remember that red yarn in the last post?

This is how I spun it.

 First, I opened up this small batch of roving I got at Chicago's Yarn Con. (hey person reading this. You NEED to go to this next year. They have some of the coolest stuff ever there. So let's make a promise right here right now. You will continue reading my blog, and I will let you know when I go next year. Yay)

 I don't remember specifically what sorts of fibers are in here. I think it's a hodgepodge of different breeds and fibers; there was some cashmere, wool, possibly alpaca, and synthetic bits.

This was my main roving. (see, I'm sure there is terminology for this sort of thing. I'm sure this is called the superior draft or numero uno fiberino or something equally imposing). Now I'm not talking smack on knit picks, but this wool is not the softest. On the plus side, it goes gradually from color to color. The first is red.



I love red, but I also love a challenge. That's why I decided this would be the perfect canvas for my experiment. I could have just done the boring thing and spun a multicolored yarn, but I wanted to do something crazy that I didn't know how to do!

From the mess of white/gold/orange fibers, I drew lengths and put them on my leg. From my brief experience with spinning, I've come to realize the best way to spin yarn is when all the fibers line up. So I teased and stroked these locks until they all stood at attention.

It should also be said that the red roving was also pre-drafted (which basically means you pull the fibers apart before you start to spin. In theory it makes it consistent so you just have to spin it and not try to pull it apart to make it even while you're spinning.)

What I did then was combine the two. When I say combine, I literally mean I held the red and the white/orange together and let the spin do the rest.

 

What is the end product? Surprisingly, I produced success.

Not only was this yarn pretty well balanced, but the white/orange strands mesh pretty well with the red.

Overall, I would say that this rocked my cabana.

Roving in the shape of a heart.